# Habbo Hotel

- Author: Joichi Ito
- Date: 2002-10-07T19:16:48Z



http://www.habbohotel.com/
Neeraj showed us Habbohotel today.

Hirata found it on IP. It is very cool. I think the best avatar style space I've seen so far. The only thing is, the site is in the UK and I can't buy credits to furnish my room. If anyone else is a member, My Habbo is "Joichi"...

Hat's off to Dan who wrote about this a year ago!
Dan Gillmor
From: Gillmor, Dan
To: Dave Farber
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 18:53:11 -0400

http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/opinion/dgillmor/dg072201.htm

HELSINKI -- Buying virtual furniture for a virtual hotel room may seem likan odd enough exercise. Now add this: You pay by mobile phone.

That's how it works at online chat sites Hotelli Kultakala and Habbo Hotel, operated by a small Finnish company called Sulake. And people, mostly young people, are paying -- with real money -- by calling a special phone number, entering a few digits and having the cost of virtual furniture added to their next month's phone bills.

Across town, meanwhile, Riot Entertainment is getting ready to beam messages from Frodo the Hobbit to the mobile phones of ``Lord of the Rings'' fans.
The messages from Frodo and other denizens of Middle Earth will be part of a
movie marketing campaign when the first of three Rings movies opens later
this year.

Some of the most intriguing ideas about tomorrow's mobile communications and
commerce are coming from the people of this small Nordic nation, whose
influence on the world's telecommunications stage has long outweighed the
size of its population.





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